Sailing Inland & Offshore

by Richard Crockett (aboard ‘Assegai’) Today, 26 April, marks the 40th anniversary of the 1984 Vasco da Gama Race, when the fleet was devastated by big winds and massive seas. For me, all these years later, I feel it’s time to share a reminder that the fateful 1984 race had two […]

by Richard Crockett I was very fortunate to compete in the very first Vasco da Gama Race from Durban to East London in 1977. I crewed for Brian Tocknell aboard his Miura ‘Outre Mer’. ”It was my very first major ocean race, having done several races and passages from Durban to […]

By Richard Crockett Following on from yesterdays Slocum Centennial, there is more in this part about the man, his yacht and the places he visited. He stopped in Durban and Cape Town where he spoke about celestial navigation, and interestingly how to obtain longitude without an accurate time piece. […]

by Richard Crockett Here’s one for the history buffs! 127 years ago, in 1895, Captain Joshua Slocum set off on a voyage around the world. His boat, named ‘Spray’ was a 37-foot antique oyster sloop that he rebuilt from a wreck he found propped up in a field near New Bedford, […]

By Richard Crockett The headline is misleading as there was no devastation, mayhem nor Mayday calls, but rather a Tornado catamaran setting the Round the Island Race alight on the Vaal Dam. It was Garth Boshoff who took line honours in 1991, setting a new course record time, and also taking the […]

By Richard Crockett Some random browsing had me stumble upon this report from 1989 when Rob de Vlieg and Nicholas Cloete were announced as “Yachtsman and Junior Yachtsman of the year” respectively. De Vlieg is a man always around boats, initially dinghies where he was always a top […]

      by Richard Crockett Here’s a delightful story. Who knew that Albert Einstein enjoyed sailing? I certainly did not until stumbling upon this delightful piece in the January 1989 issue of SA Yachting mag. It reads as Follows: Eric van Ees, scribe for the Flying Dutchman […]

By Richard Crockett I can clearly remember the build of ‘Thunderchild’ as for some reason it attracted a lot of discussion, all good too. Even today she is a yacht that is regularly mentioned in dispatches – and still races all the major Cape regattas. Maybe she was the talk of […]

By Richard Crockett Since the launch of the first Shearwater 39 in November 1987, Dudley Dix’s creation turned heads and stolen admiring glances. She’s still a beauty that will never age, a remarkably fine sailer too, and a design still in demand the world over. Those who watched the […]

By Richard Crockett Back in the day Crystic Week was simply one of those regattas that every serious sailor simply had to do – every year. Durban was warm in July while the rest of the country froze, but more importantly a vast array of different classes were catered for, attracting many of […]